Newcastle Could Lose Out On Another Top Transfer Target This Week

French daily Ouest-France are reporting that Lyon are hoping to sign Newcastle target Nicolas Pepe of Angers and could even complete the deal in the coming week.

The last we heard of Nicolas Pepe was back on May 23rd when French newspaper L’Equipe reported that Newcastle were close to signing the player for around £8M, but things have gone quiet on the Pepe front since then and we don’t even know if he’s still a target for the Magpies.

The news today is that Lyon have moved quickly over the weekend and are trying to compete the signing this week, so if we are still interested in the player we would assume Lee Charnley and Rafa Benitez have been alerted to the situation.

It was also L’Equipe who reported the player turned down a move to Newcastle on the very last day of the January transfer window.

The reason Nicolas wanted to stay in France was to help Angers in their fight against relegation and he was successful in doing that, with Angers finishing in 12th place with 43 points.

L’Equipe on May 23rd reported that Newcastle were in the driver’s seat to sign this player but as we said, things have gone cold since that report from France in May.

Nicolas was born in France and was at the African Cup of Nations in Gabon last January representing the Ivory Coast and the lad has one full cap he picked up last November in a 0-0 friendly against France.

Pepe is under contract at Angers until June 2019 and he joined them back in 2013 from Poitiers FC.

Nicolas can play on either wing and has played 47 times in total for his French club with 3 goals and 2 assists after making his debut over two years ago in November of 2014 against Ajaccio.

If Newcastle are still interested in signing this player we would assume the club will go back in for him, but it’s very difficult to know exactly what’s happening behind the scenes on these transfers.

6 comments so far

All will be revealed. It’s amusing in some ways to read the growing murmurs of unrest about a perceived lack of movement on signings for the toon. Here we are just a handful of days into this transfer window.. But I repeat, it is going to be extremely difficult to restock the squad with a glittering array of new, top level players in this first window back in the big league, just like that. Like it or not we are probably viewed as a risky move by many players, maybe on a par or below some teams we would like to think we are ‘bigger’ than. Promoted team, with a turbulent recent history, and with a budget to spread over the need for more than one or two players. Agents and players will need a fair bit of persuading and they will have a lot of other established teams interested. We have to be patient, still (!) and not panic if we end up signing less inspiring people in order to upgrade our squad.

Ill only start to be worried come August 1st if we still aint bought anyone. Until then ill continue to trust that Rafa knows what hes doing.. hes never been 1 who publishes his targets in the press until they are holding the scarf above their heads

Rafa does,nt reveal his transfer targets to anyone until they are holding the scarf above their heads. So every article we read on the blog is total bullshit. How do we know about Batshuayi and Abraham? Ive heard we want Messi but will only try to sign him if he shaves off his beard.

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